Now I can get some housework done, and finish harvesting my garden. Ordinarily, feeding 5 and some times 6 people isn't that big of a chore, but.. When you have a harvest crew every day you have to provide decent meals twice a day along with dessert. I find that I spend most of my day preparing and cooking with little time for anything else. Some times and probably most times we will get a rain shower to hold things up for a day or two. When that happens, I can get other work done. This year though, we had perfect harvest weather, so they could go with out stopping. Oops, I forgot to mention break downs. What a blessing! We didn't have one! That can cost time and money!

The men didn't get a break this harvest but actually I did. My husband's niece got married. We were both going to go but of course when harvest time comes around at the same time I'm afraid the harvest is the priority. If it had been close to home then he probably could have taken off a few hours to attend. The trouble was that it was a six and one half hour drive away. That takes three days (a day to go, the wedding, a day to come back) out of you harvest time and that is something we can't afford. If we don't get our harvest done we don't get any money.

Eventually we would have gotten our harvest done regardless of rain or break down but the grade would more than likely be lower. The lower the grade the less money you receive. Who wants to take less money? Who can afford to take less money? Not us!

Anyway as I was saying, I did get a break and was able to go to the wedding. The harvest crew were moving to the land closer to town so they went to the restaurant there for their meals. Now I know that also costs money but not nearly as much if he had taken three days off. We decided that it was something I should do because my husband and I plus his younger sister are the only ones who could represent the bride's side of the family. The bride's mother had died of cancer about seven years ago.

I took my sister-in-law and boy we had a good time. The drive was long and tiring but the wedding made up for it. There is nothing like family and nothing like getting to know your relatives better.

We also have another wedding on the 15th so having the harvest finished allows my husband the opportunity to attend. Now, if I can just get some internet marketing done in between harvesting my garden, I will be one happy camper!

Patricia Downing